Sharks Mic Check: Patrick Marleau

Sharks Mic Check: Patrick Marleau

man who needs no introduction. Patrick Marlo, always great to see you. So, what do these days and weeks look like for you lately? Um, still at the rink a lot. Still at the rink with uh my two the two boys that are at home right now. My older two boys are off playing hockey in Canada. So, uh but uh two at home still keeps me busy and uh just kind of focusing on on them and also trying to help the boys that are that are away. Right. Have you ever tried to get away from hockey? Have you actively tried to distance yourself? I don’t know if you can do it. Uh, not with my boys being involved. It’s not not going to happen. No. Are there parts that you miss and are there parts that you don’t miss about being a player? Uh, yeah, definitely. I miss obviously miss being around the guys, miss playing, miss all that. Um, but I’m enjoying the time with my family now, and that’s probably the only thing that, you know, you kind of miss out on playing is you’re you’re away from your family for a lot of the time. Yeah, we talked about it before. what a hard switch of gears like when all you’ve ever been is a hockey player and then you jump off those those rails. That’s a little disjointing in life and you’re not the only one to go through it. Do you keep in touch with a lot of guys who made that jump from player to what’s next and how do they do with it? Yeah. Um I try to keep in touch with a lot of the guys and uh and you know everybody’s going through the same thing so you get to talk about it. You get to get to know what everybody’s up to and you know it’s it’s kind of interesting to see where guys end up, what they what their passions are, what they’re what they’re into. So, uh, you know, a lot of people go hunting, fishing, and then a lot of podcasts now from a lot of expert. Oh, so you want to start a podcast? No. The Patrick Marlo show. No, I’m I’m good for now. But I feel like, could you imagine some of the stories if you actually decided to open up and tell them? I feel like there’s a lot in that brain right there. Uh, I think you got a few. There’s probably a few, but I think it it they only come back over uh, you know, getting together with the guys and having a few drinks. Probably. I I I can supply that. I’d be happy to partake, Patty. Just saying. Um, I’m I’m going to ask you this question as an excuse to play some footage that I recently just found. I dug into the Sharks archive now that I work here, which is great. We have footage from Jumbo’s first day on the team. Now, you’re obviously in a lot of these shots. He’s in the dressing room. You guys were on the road, right, when he joined the team. What do you remember about the initial first days of when you told Jumbo was going to be on the Sharks when that trade happened? It was during that game in Dallas. But then what do you remember about his first days in joining the team and and kind of you too how you two hit it off? Oh, just having him out there, his presence alone. Um, you know, he competes every night. So, that’s uh I think that’ll rub off on some of the guys here and uh you know, it’s just going to make our team better. Um, yeah. Well, we we knew each other from uh previously obviously too, but uh drafted in the same year and played against each other for a lot of years. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh I just told this story the other day. It was kind of funny. Um yeah, we found out basically after warm-ups that uh we had traded for jumbo and because a couple guys were not playing all of a sudden. Yeah. All of a sudden three guys were getting undressed. So uh um yeah that that was basically a throwaway game for for us you know when three guys the stars won. Yeah. Yeah. Three guys get traded and right after work warm ups. It’s throws you for a loop. But uh that first day when Jumble came in I think he and Kyle McLaren went to the airport and uh met him there and then he had a he had a press conference like right away. So, a bunch of whirlwind stuff for him, but and then right away won, you know, he him and Che uh hit it off right away, lighting the lamp, and uh you know, and then we were roommates. Uh so, I got to room with Joe and you know, kind of get to learn what makes him tick day day in and day out. And uh uh it was a great I don’t know how many years we we roommed together, but uh we stayed rooming together after we were allowed not to. Didn’t have to. I was going to say right there was at some point the NHL came out and said you don’t have to do this anymore and you still did. Yeah. And I think it was just for us it was probably just routine and it was easy and it was having somebody to talk to and all that fun stuff. So does it kind of warm your heart that maybe the Sharks of this season and beyond are getting back to some of the culture things that you experienced while you were here. And I don’t want to single out Will and Mac, but they are kind of like Jumbo and Patty to to some degree right now, you know. Yeah. No, it’s exciting. And I think um you know talking to those two guys, you know, when when the fans are in the seats and the team’s going and they’re winning, it gets loud in here and they they got a taste of that this year. Um and I told them, you just wait for playoffs and uh um but things good things are coming, great things are coming with these two guys. Um and everything that’s uh surrounding them right now. And you can see by their play how uh how great they’re going to be. For the people that haven’t experienced it, I’m talking about players or even brand new Sharks fans, it’s hard to explain to them what this building is like, what this fan base is like when you ultimately get to that second season. I mean, are you are you able to successfully translate that, do you think, or are you are you just saying things that they’re hearing and they don’t understand yet? Yeah, you have to experience it. It’s one of those things you got to get to get to a game, get to a playoff game, and uh you know, come to the tank and be part of it. All right. You’ve got the Alumni Heritage 2.0 no jersey on, but you were a player to a certain point you had worn every single Sharks jersey ever, including the originals, which are still some of my favorites. Do you have a favorite Sharks jersey you ever put on? Is there one that just hit differently for you? Um, I really like the black jerseys. All of the different black variety. Yeah. All right. Because why? I don’t know. I just like them. Yeah. The look, feel. Maybe. All right. I’m color blind, so maybe easier for me to see guys. Did not did not know that. Oh, now he’s revealing it after the playing days are over. That is that an upper body situation or lower body situ situation? Uh, you guys wore them in the playoffs one year. You wore exclusively the black sweaters. I want to say 2012 or 13 or so somewhere in there. Um, who are the players and the years that you think about the most and you had so many different eras and, you know, teammates here. Is there a certain is there a certain little core group that you always go back to? Well, different parts of my career, right? Yeah. So the early days would be like Kelly Rudy, um Tony Granado, Mike Reichi, Owen Nolan, um Gary Sudter, Doug Bodger, Tony Gran. Like when you come into the league at 18, 19, these guys are your god, your hockey gods. And so I I just I couldn’t believe what kind of group I came into and how grateful I was to for them to help me. Um, and then like Jumbo, um, Heater, Pav, Chloe, Doug, Douglas Murray. Yep. Um, I’m gonna miss a bunch of guys, but like I know I know that era pretty well. Yeah, we could go on and on. Yeah, Patty, it’s great to have you back. I know you’re not too far away, but don’t be a stranger. Come back even more often. I think we’ll like that. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Brodie Brazil sits down with Sharks alum and development coach, Patrick Marleau.